“He was involved in the first fight and the second fight,” White said. “I told the guys to go let him grab some beer and some popcorn and go sit down and start watching some fights, not judging them.”

To clarify, Hughes was only singled out because he worked both fights, not because his scorecards were significantly worse than anybody else’s. In the opening bout between Milana Dudieva and Elizabeth Phillips, Hughes was one of the two judges to score it for Dudieva — a result that White said he actually agreed with — and in the next bout between Royston Wee and Yao Zhikui, Hughes was one of the two judges to score it for Wee. White did not agree with that decision, and it sent the UFC prez into “a pretty bad meltdown.”

While it’s kind of refreshing to see a bad judge get pulled off the mound like a nervous pitcher, the incident prompted a storm of criticism from MMA journalists including Kevin Iole and Ben Fowlkes, who felt it was a tremendous conflict of interest for a UFC executive to remove a judge when he doesn’t agree with the results — especially in locales without athletic commissions, where the UFC arranges virtually all of the officiating itself.

The UFC brass must have come to the same conclusion, because the following statement was just published on UFC.com:

(Dana White’s “I’m not the president of a massive company” pose, typically used by presidents of massive companies. / Photo via Getty.)

A few years ago, Matt Brown’s recent, sexist comments about women’s MMA wouldn’t have rocked the boat much. Some people would’ve complained, citing such infractions of decency as the reason why the UFC wasn’t where the NFL was in terms of mainstream appeal. Dana White would’ve simply responded “Fuck you, dummy” or some other dismissive, useless remark. The UFC is cool, and it’s cool because the fighters aren’t corporate, generic, and anodyne. They’re as real as it gets, as opposed to the walking-press releases that are athletes in other major sports.

Nine out of ten UFC fans will side with Quinton Jackson and Joe Rogan every time, because Rampage and Joe are awesome, and motorboating is hilarious, and who the fuck is Maggie Hendricks anyway? Seriously, here’s another representative comment from the UG thread from member ‘Bat21?:

Jesus. If this is the mindset of the average UFC fan, then good luck being taken seriously, guys.

A high-profile commentator for the NFL or NBA couldn’t get away with throwing around slurs like this in public forums. I know that the fast-and-loose quality of the UFC’s frontmen and fighters has been part of the brand’s great success to this point. But there will come a time (we hope) when MMA is so popular that guys like Rampage and Rogan will have to behave like gentlemen — so they may as well start practicing for it now.

Has this time finally come? Do UFC employees finally have to behave, as Ben Goldstein put it, like gentlemen?

On Wednesday, we gave our CagePotato Seal of Approval to Matt Brown‘s new podcast Legit Man Shit, featuring the “hilarious, borderline sexist musings” of the tough-as-nails UFC welterweight contender. As Jared wrote, “head over to the podcast’s SoundCloud page and check out episode one before Brown is inevitably stifled by his superiors like every forward-thinking philosophizer before him.”

“Matt Brown has apologized for the comments made on his podcast, and we have addressed the matter with him. His comments don’t reflect the views of the UFC. There’s no place for discrimination within our organization at any level. The UFC is built on principles of respect [Ed. note: LMFAO], and any statements to the contrary are not acceptable.”

I am deeply saddened to announce that on Friday, April 20, I respectfully withdrew from the May 26 event so that I can request a continuance until my situation with the Nevada State Athletic Commission is resolved.

I cannot express how sorry I am to the Commission, Junior Dos Santos, the fans, the owners and employees of the UFC, my friends and family and anyone else who this has affected.

I absolutely do not believe in, nor do I use performance-enhancing drugs. I am a clean fighter and I will do whatever it takes to prove this to everyone.